You'd love to have a family portrait session that fully captures who you are, how you connect, and how much affection surfaces when all the members of your family are present within the camera frame.

We're happy to capture your family in our studio, complete with gorgeous light and minimal distractions, or in your comfy-cozy home full of familiar toys and routines. No matter where our session takes place, we'll delight in your delight. And we'll encourage you to pay attention to one another instead of the camera, because there's no 'add happy' button in Photoshop.

We don't care whether you're barefoot or wearing fuzzy slippers, and we won't be sending over a twenty-page list of suggestions about what to wear. (We can make you look beautiful in sweat pants if you love each other.) We just want to capture your family. Your habits, your quirks, and your love. Die-hard beach goers? World travelers? Animal lovers? Trekkies? We wanna see it. And when you view the images we've created together for the first time, we want the depth of love you feel for your family to grab you by the collar and bring tears to your eyes.

The video below provides a peek at how portrait sessions unfold. If you have questions or would like to schedule a portrait session, click on the 'Contact' link above or call 215-206-3689. Oh -- and thanks for stopping by, lovely!

-- Kristen & Haunani, Essential Imagery owners

P.S. That's Kristen up in the header -- Haunani is camera-shy.

TWITTER FOR THE UNCONVINCED. OR FRIGHTENED.

Okay, peeps. The world has been turned upside down since the big O entered Twitter-ville. The most common reason I hear for not embracing Twitter is: “No one cares about my life. It just isn’t that interesting.”

But but but…one of the reasons I heart Twitter is just that: your everyday, mundane life is shared by many other everyday folks just trying to get by. And the sense of connectedness that comes from other ________s [insert genre: geeks, moms, crafters, photographers, fashionistas, musicians, life-lovers, business folk] in the world is rather remarkable.

Yesterday, frustrated with my cat’s early-morning antics, I tweeted:

Available: 1 disco rave cat. Enjoys 3AM parties and soccer games with NEW earrings.

And this response from the lovely Karyn Kelbaugh made my day: Trade you one Houdini Cat. Makes toy mice, pens & small bits of paper disappear. Also operates a dunking booth in his bowl.

Suddenly, I laughed. And took Big Kitty off of Ebay.

Okay, fine, it’s not necessarily about being supremely interesting, they concede. Then peeps say: “I like Facebook so much anyway” and scoff at me. That’s fabulous! But some of us [ahem, not me, naturally] get so distracted by group-joining, sheep-throwing, gallery-uploading, chatting, status-updating, and fashion-war-ing that Twitter is the [relatively] simple option, here. If you enjoy Facebook, I promise, you’ll dig Twitter. I can’t promise the love goes the other way around.

Finally, if you like learning stuff, get a Twitter account. I’ve learned more about web 2.0, other fabulous artists, local events, and worldwide movements through my use of Twitter over the past few months than I had in the few years prior to it. Seriously. Sign up. And when you do, swing by Monday to chat about some Twitter do’s and don’ts.

To wrap: connect, learn, and grow on Twitter. To sign up for your very own account, hit up Twitter.com. If you’re already a Twitter maniac, you can follow me here. Woo!